Do-overs and new ditties from Commander Cody

Commander Cody “Dopers, Drunks and Everyday Losers” (Blind Pig)

Commander Cody used to drive a “Hot Rod Lincoln” before a seemingly prophetic car crash in 1986 curtailed his musical career, turning his focus to painting.

All of a sudden, in the wink of an eye, a 1996 Mercury Cougar XR7 passes us by, leaving a smoke plume of burned rubber, engine exhaust and marijuana. The pungency is surprisingly pleasing.

That’s right, folks, Commander Cody, aka George Frayne, is back with that new car smell.

Still self-deprecating and playful, Frayne calls his first album in 13 years “Dopers, Drunks and Everyday Losers.”



As opposed to earlier studio records, the Commander really is in command now. He’s rearranged songs he wished were done differently from throughout his career.

Besides the new arrangements, the album is a success because Frayne quit Camel cigarettes five years ago and is singing better than ever. Frayne was a reluctant vocalist when Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen released its biggest hit, “Hot Rod Lincoln.” Frayne actually talks more than he sings in that 1971 recording. Most of the band’s body of work — seven records in the 1970s — were sung by Billy C. Farlow, Bill Kirchen and John Tichy.

The Airmen, which featured Andy Stein on violin and Bobby Black on pedal steel guitar, played country. And with Frayne on piano, they played boogie-woogie blues and rock ‘n’ roll. Record stores and radio didn’t have a category for the group destined to be perpetually “lost in the ozone.”

Then there was the show in Nashville, where the folks didn’t take kindly to the longhairs from Berkeley.

“We were doing country swing stuff, and we were attentive to details, and we were very sincere about what we were doing,” Frayne said from his home in Sarasota, N.Y. “And they just laughed us off the stage. ‘Take a bath! Find a rock concert!’ ”

The band’s live show was enjoyed at friendlier venues like the Armadillo World Headquarters in Texas and back in Northern California. But a corrupt manager brought the whole thing to an end in the mid-1970s.

“We had to break up or we all would have gone to jail because we all owed everybody money,” Frayne said. “We had to break up the band and dissolve everything.”

Frayne took a solo record deal with Clive Davis at Arista Records and changed his style.

“We tried to go pop,” he said. “We got Nicolette Larson and another girl to sing, and everyone was into looking real good, and that didn’t work one bit,” he said. “Then I hooked up with Kirchen and his band the Moonlighters. That ended with my automobile crash in December of ’86. I quit really trying to go for it at that point.”

Frayne, who has a master’s degree in sculpture and painting from the University of Michigan, made art his priority, and he moved from Northern California to New York. He plans to publish a book, “Art, Music and Life,” this summer.

“Over 10 years I picked up a bunch of good musicians,” Frayne said. “I’d also written a bunch of new songs and I wanted to remake a lot of songs I didn’t like the way they went in the past.”

Frayne teamed with producer and multi-instrumentalist Aaron “Professor Louie” Hurwitz and brought his band into the studio for three extended sessions in 2008.

“I was finding a bunch of like-minded souls like Professor Louie at Woodstock,” Frayne said. “We killed a lot of old demons. Plus these guys are really good musicians. They’ve been with me for 10 years. They deserve to have their album out.”

There are remakes from Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen’s first album, “Lost In the Ozone,” all the way through the self-described “disastrous” run with Arista and the tracks “Seven Eleven” and “Lone Ranger.” He also offers some new tunes and a couple of obscure covers.

“Another One Of Those Nights” was completely rearranged into a more rolling drinking song that shows off the Commander’s piano playing. “Roll Yer Own” and “Semi Truck,” sung by guitarist Mark Emerick, are remade as well, the former still smoky, the latter speedy yet stalled and both stronger than the originals. Chris “Tiny” Olsen plays pedal steel guitar.

“They Kicked Me Out Of The Band” sounds like a Frayne original, but it’s a little-known song by Mill Valley's Brien Hopkins. “OK Hotel” is a ditty Frayne has been sitting on for 30 years.

Bassist Randy Bramwell and drummer Steve Barbuto set a more deliberate rhythm than did the Airmen’s “Buffalo” Bruce Barlow and Lance Dickerson. Barbuto delivers sincere vocals to the country ballad “Wine Do Yer Stuff,” maybe the best song on the album, save for “Seeds and Stems Again,” sung by Circe Link.

The album concludes with the comical “No No Song.”

“Hoyt Axton wrote it as a product to give to me, and my first wife talked me out of doing it because it was about drugs,” Frayne said. “He gave it to Ringo (Starr) and they made $3 million. That was one of the biggest mistakes.”

The song explains how the singer has given up vices like marijuana, cocaine and booze because it “makes it hard to find the door.”

Listeners will be happy to hear Frayne hasn’t closed the door on his musical career.